Maryland schools, students watch Hurricane Sandy

Districts shore up equipment, food as storm nears

School officials statewide are making plans as Hurricane Sandy -- replete with powerful winds, pelting rain, flooding and a plunge in temperatures -- appears poised to combine with a winter cold front.

It was too early to tell Friday whether classes could be canceled by Monday, but that hasn't stopped top administrators in Anne Arundel County from getting prepared.

"We understand from the county that Annapolis High School is going to be open as an emergency shelter, if needed, beginning Sunday. So, we work very closely with them as well as the other county agencies to make sure those preparations are in place, if needed," Anne Arundel County schools spokesman Bob Mosier said.

The district expects power outages could affect thousands of pounds of food.

"At the close of business today, we're going to, for example, we're going to take all of our food supplies -- all of our milk, the water, the juice -- and move into our freezer so that it can be deep frozen for the weekend," Chief Operating Officer Alex Szachnowicz said.

The concern doesn't end there: The district's chief information officer, Greg Barlow, said he wants to ensure key information -- both at school headquarters and in schools -- is protected.

"We're going to be shutting everything down -- all the school servers and all the computers in the schools-- this afternoon after school is out so we can protect that, and we'll leave all of our main systems up tonight so we can do all backups and get everything preserved," Barlow said.